Taxi drivers protest Uber at a Toronto city council meeting in 2015. In B.C., that opposition played out in the May election, and explains the reluctance of the NDP — and secretly the Liberals — to move quickly on ride-hailing services.Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Columnist Mike Smyth writes about the political fight in Victoria to finally bring the Uber ride-for-hire service to B.C.

The B.C. Liberals figured they had a bright, shiny, vote-winning issue before the May election when they promised to bring the popular Uber ride-for-hire service to B.C. in time for Christmas.

Just think: No more worries about getting home from the office Christmas party, when it’s impossible to get a taxi. No more temptations to drive after a glass of eggnog, when a quick-and-cheap Uber ride was just a tap away on your smartphone screen.

The Liberals’ point man on their Uber-by-Christmas promise was cabinet minister Peter Fassbender, who represented Surrey-Fleetwood in the B.C. legislature.

For some of the Liberals’ opponents in the rival New Democratic Party, this was just perfect.

NDP MLA Harry Bains warned the Uber issue would hurt the Liberals in the Fraser Valley.

The New Democrats knew the Liberals’ Uber plan was setting off alarm bells inside a taxi industry dominated by South Asian cab drivers, many of whom had sunk their life savings into their taxi licences.

“I know a lot of families worried about losing their homes,” said Harry Bains, the NDP MLA for Surrey-Newton. “They are really scared.”

The Liberals, of course, knew their Uber plan would anger taxi drivers, especially among Indo-Canadians. But they calculated many more people wanted Uber than opposed it, and the opinion polls appeared to back them up.

Now, key Liberals admit it was a mistake.

“A lot of young people love their smartphone technology and wanted Uber,” former Liberal cabinet minister Bill Bennett told me. “Unfortunately, a lot of young people don’t vote.”

For a politically sophisticated and engaged Indo-Canadian community, however, it was a different story.

“South Asians dominate the taxi industry and the Uber issue drove votes to the NDP,” said Gurpreet Singh, talk-show host at Spice Radio, an Indo-Canadian station.

“It wasn’t just cab drivers who were worried. It was their wives and their kids and their grandparents and their extended families. That’s a lot of votes.”

The New Democrats, perhaps worried the Uber issue still might work in the Liberals’ favour, issued a vaguely worded campaign promise to “support the passing of new rules to introduce ride-sharing to B.C. in 2017” while creating “a truly fair approach” with taxi drivers.

The Liberals, though, were clearly seen as the Uber party. And the risk to the Liberals in ridings with large South Asian communities became clearer as the election neared.

At the height of the campaign, I was in a taxi cab jammed with reporters heading to an event. Hitching a ride with us was Stephen Smart, the press secretary for Christy Clark, then the Liberal leader and premier.

“Oh, you guys are covering the election?” the cab driver chimed in. “The Liberals are going to get slaughtered in Surrey because of Uber!”

Smart, of course, told us the cab driver was wrong. But the cabbie was right.

Of the eight Metro Vancouver ridings with the largest South Asian populations, the NDP ran the table. The Liberals lost every one, including Fassbender’s seat in Surrey.

Which brings us to the present day, and an NDP minority government trying to figure out how to deal with this Uber thing.

Last week, Transportation Minister Claire Trevena announced yet another review of the ride-for-hire industry that won’t be completed until 2018, with a policy decision not expected until well into the new year.

That NDP campaign promise about “new rules” in 2017? Tossed out the window.

The Liberals spent the week hammering the NDP for the flip-flop.

“This is a government of broken promises, delays, reviews and dragging their feet,” interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman railed in the legislature.

One thing Green party leader Andrew Weaver and Premier John Horgan don’t stand together on is the urgency of bringing ride-hailing services to B.C.CHAD HIPOLITO /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

But the fact is the Liberals are just as worried as the NDP about the tricky politics of Uber after the issue backfired so badly on the Libs during the election.

The only guy at the legislature with a clear and consistent position is Green party leader Andrew Weaver, who introduced a private member’s bill to allow Uber, Lyft and other ride-for-hire companies to start operating immediately.

“Vancouver is the largest city in North America without ride-sharing,” Weaver complained.

“Let’s get going on this. I don’t want to play politics with it. There’s a whole generation of millennials out there who aren’t taking taxis and who want access to this service.”

Could Weaver and the Greens team up with the B.C. Liberals to get Uber into B.C.? After all, his bill is very similar to what the Liberals promised during the election.

But now the once-bitten Liberals are being shy.

“The reality is ride-sharing is obviously controversial for people,” Coleman told me. “There are thousands of people who make a living driving a cab and a number of them are friends of mine. I know their relatives, their cousins, their aunts, their uncles who also have concerns about it.

“It has always been our position that this has to be a level playing field. If you are going to allow ride-sharing into B.C., the first and foremost thing is: ‘How are you going to support the taxi industry?’”

Translation: Don’t expect the Liberals and Greens to suddenly join forces to pass Weaver’s Uber bill, even though they have enough combined votes in a minority parliament to get it done.

And the New Democrats? They won’t call the bill for debate anyway.

One of the long-standing rules of the legislature says only the governing party can call a bill for a vote. The NDP simply won’t, and Weaver’s bill will quietly die.

At least Weaver can say he tried. As the winter rain and snow arrives, that will be cold comfort for frigid, wet travellers trying vainly to hail a cab on windswept Vancouver streets.

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